


Cinderella (the Drop Dead Fred Adaption)

by Postsynthcomrade5



Category: Cinderella (Fairy Tale), Cinderella - All Media Types, Drop Dead Fred (1991)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Canon Rewrite, Cinderella Elements, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Fairy Tale Elements, Female Homosexuality, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hair Brushing, Haircuts, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Makeover, Meta, Past Child Abuse, Post-Canon, Shopping, Shopping Malls, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 09:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21072881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Postsynthcomrade5/pseuds/Postsynthcomrade5
Summary: Alternate retelling of the Drop Dead Fred ending, borrowing some elements from the iconic Cinderella fairytale,Lizzie is Cinderella and Fred is the fairy-godmother or fairy-godjester as he puts it,





	1. Once upon a time...

Once Upon a time...there was a young woman named Elizabeth Cronin,

Elizabeth Cronin’s life was a mess,she was still under control of her cruel mother and her manipulative boyfriend Charles, she had also lost her money, car and job...if this wasn’t enough her imaginary friend from her childhood, Drop Dead Fred had returned to her life.

Although at times because of how chaotic Drop Dead Fred was, when he was trying to be helpful he would sometimes end up making things worse.

Charles was very controlling towards Lizzie but she hadn’t fully realized it yet, For Fred, this was very confusing and complicated,

Ever since he had reunited with Lizzie, she had been acting very strange recently, ever since her mother and the doctors gave her some peculiar green pills.

With each one that she took, the weaker he became, he felt distorted but he was determined to help her.

He tried hiding them, he tried disguising himself and scaring off the nurse by pulling some ghost tricks like making doors and windows open by themselves, but it wasn’t working, Lizzie was still under the influence of Charles

Lizzie was avoiding Fred again, on one hand, he understood why because at times he did unintentionally annoy her, on the other hand, Charles was a very toxic and emotionally manipulative “boyfriend” towards Lizzie.

Lizzie had just found out that Charles had cheated on her with Annabella,

she held onto the door as he overheard Charles talking on the phone, she then closed it over as she felt broken, she felt betrayed as she gulped the last green pill from the jar.

She knew she had to leave him but she was afraid of being alone, she had always been under the control of other people,

Lizzie ran outside to a nearby empty park where she sat on a bench, blubbering in tears


	2. Moving On

“I can’t believe that, when will I be able to gain control of my life, with my mum and the pills and Charles, just why do I bother, I’m all alone now, I have nobody”

Drop Dead Fred suddenly reappeared in a puff of light green smoke and glitter, he looked less weak than before,

Lizzie flickered her eyes as she could see that Fred had returned, but he was donning a silver necklace and long-sleeved dress in various shades of green, covered by a grey cloak holding a small magic wand

He appeared behind her as he gave Lizzie a reassuring hug 

“Nobody, snotface? you can’t possibly think that”

Lizzie mumbled “but it’s true”

Fred spoke in a serious tone “Nonsense, Lizzie” He then smiled “if you had nobody, then I wouldn’t be here”

Fred then moved his hands up “and here I am!”

He got out a tissue from his cloak pocket and lightly dried Lizzie’s tears

“Oh, it’s ok, Dry those tears.”

Lizzie exclaimed, “but what about Charles, what about my mother?”

Fred responded, “Sod Charles, he’s a lying, cheating, controlling bastard, you don’t need someone like him in your life, he’s not good for you, he doesn’t treat you right, he didn’t make you happy”

He then folded his hands, holding his magic wand 

“As for the megabitch well she’s just as bad, except she’s controlled you since you were a child, a vulnerable child who found it hard to stand up to their strict cruel mother, but on the bright side you had me and I was able to protect you, sorry that at times I’ve been more destructive rather than helpful, but I do really care about you, Lizzie, while you were under the control of those two, you’ve never gotten a sense of what it feels like to be free, I’m going to give you that chance.”

Lizzie blinked, “it was strange to see Fred sound so serious but it was very heartwarming to hear Fred explain his true feelings”

She said, “then how do I be free?”

Fred explained “being free means being yourself, not letting yourself be manipulated by anyone else, cut the bad people out of your life, start a new path, your not a little girl anymore, your a 29-year-old strong independent woman, you are capable of amazing things, but because of your past you feel afraid to move on,but I believe that you can,

He held out his hand, Lizzie touched his hand 

Lizzie said, “Ok!, Fred I will be free”

Fred grinned, “Brilliant, now let’s get revenge on Charles,”

Later Lizzie took the salad bowl she had cooked earlier and tossed it over Charles’s head as she bluntly said “goodbye, Charles” as she then stole his car and drove home to confront her mother.


	3. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo

Lizzie then confronted her mother, it took a lot of energy to do so but she did it, she got out her jack in the box and started driving down the street.

Metaphorically it felt like she had gone up to her child self and cut off the chains that her mum had attached her to,

As she waited by a red light, Fred appeared near a bus stop, Lizzie stopped the car and walked outside to talk to him,

“That was outstanding, look at you standing up to them like that, I’m so proud of you, now we need to get you a new look”

He flicked out his magic wand and suddenly he and Lizzie were transported into a shopping mall,

Fred walked into a salon as Lizzie sat in one of the chairs while the cape was flung over her 

He looked at Lizzie’s face gazing at her hair and makeup

he stood behind her 

“Hmm, this bob cut looks pretty even but it could be a bit more layered, what do you think?”

Lizzie was surprised “Wow you’re going to be giving me a makeover, well I don’t know the last time you cut my hair was back in the day, I guess my hair could have more style”

Fred smiled, he got out some hair spray and added some while he started to comb out Lizzie’s hair.

he divided the hair into sections while he got out some scissors and carefully cut off a few locks,

he finished up on layering, brushing and cutting different locks and sections of Lizzie’s hair he turned on the blow dryer as he moved it around while the cool heat absorbed her locks, Lizzie was then handed a mirror, 

he handed her a mirror "you’re done now, what do you think?"

Lizzie looked at her reflection, her bob cut was more straight and layered at a medium length

She blinked and smiled at her new look “this is amazing, I love this new look”

Fred smiled back, "That makes me so happy, you're very welcome"

next, Fred decided to put some new makeup on Lizzie, he started taking the brushes, dabbing them into the containers and then applying the various colours and shades onto Lizzie’s face, he also lightly applied some light purple nail polish to Lizzie’s nails.

Lizzie gazed at her new glowing nails and makeup,

“This is wonderful, I love the new me, I feel like Cinderella, even though you don’t like Cinderella”

Drop Dead Fred chuckled, “Oh yeah,I did say that,I prefered the stepsisters, that’s the thing with Disney movies, they always make the villains so interesting, sometimes more so than the main characters, it’s just part of me found the lovey-dovey moments in those movies to be too soppy,maybe that was a projection from what you thought of them as a kid?”

Lizzie said, “Maybe I just found them too unrealistic, the possibility of a happy ending and a charming prince, my so-called prince ended up cheating on me and being horrible and how can I find a happy ending, considering all that’s happened”

Fred thought about it for a bit and then responded,

“You feel like Cinderella, because like her, you’ve dealt with a lot of bad events in your life,you have the evil mother and because of all that you endured when under the control of Charles and Polly, that you felt afraid, you felt afraid to change, you felt afraid to stand up for yourself,you viewed life very pessimistically…”

“But like Cinderella, you’ve learned from your experiences,you’ve cut those toxic people from your life,you’ve broken free from the chains of your past and your ready to explore more of the world and show the world how beautiful you really are,you can get your happy ending, who needs a sodding prince”

Lizzie processed what Fred had said, it was a very philosophical take on the metaphor contrasting Cinderella's life with her life but it did feel heartwarming,Lizzie liked seeing this serious side of Fred more, while he said that she had changed a lot from her experiences,she could tell the same with him, as she did project a lot of her thoughts onto Fred back then,she could see that while she had grown, he had too,they were being more open with each other”

She leaned in and hugged him,

Fred blushed as he was cuddled,

“I’m going to help get you that happy ending, it is now time for us to do some Shopping!”

They then dashed out of the salon, as Fred quickly changed back into his usual clothes while he dragged Lizzie around various shops

As she was trying to keep up with him, he was singing Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo

He continued singing while they wondered through any and every boutique the shopping centre had to offer, while Lizzie would look for outfits to try on and he’d give his opinion on each outfit.

“That’s cute,” That’s too edgy”,” that’s too yuppie “ “that’s too goth” 

He commented as he glanced at each outfit

Until...Lizzie found a good outfit

She had on a white t-shirt and some suspended trousers, she found some doc martin boots and a necklace to complete it,

Fred winked as he made finger gun gestures upon seeing Lizzie in the new outfit

He got up from his seat, “Oh! Wow! this is you, that outfit suits you so well, let’s buy it” he said excitedly as Lizzie bought the outfit while Fred scrambled around the check out to make sure all the items were there and they had enough money to afford it.

They walked outside to the nearby garden of the shopping centre, as Fred continued to sing,

“Put 'em together and what have you got”

“Bibbidi-bobbidi bibbidi-bobbidi bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!”

He cheered enthusiastically as he held onto Lizzie’s shoulders nuzzling her face slightly and affectionately

Fred then waved his magic wand and Lizzie was transformed into a strange place,

“It looked like her old house, suddenly a tree grew out of the ground and she could see holograms of Charles and her mother, Charles was in a car, which ended up turning into a balloon when she squeezed the miniature car out of the ground and the hologram of her mother burst into flames after she yelled “I'm NOT AFRAID OF YOU!” at the hologram”

The final room of the house, a replica of her bedroom had her child self trapped inside by some sellotape, Lizzie quickly removed the sellotape to metaphorically set her child self free 

She smiled and said “You don’t have to be afraid anymore”

When she finished cuddling her child self she could overhear Fred saying “You have to go now”

Lizzie blinked and suddenly realized her child self had vanished

Lizzie said “Ok! I’m ready, Let’s go” 

Fred looked away and frowned “No, you have to go alone”

Lizzie was unsure “But I want you to come back with me”

Fred explained, “Look you’ve got you now, you're a strong independent woman, you don’t need me, not anymore”

“In the future beyond, we shall meet again someday but for now it’s time for me to go”

“So goodbye,” he said frowning “ “Just kiss me and say my Drop, Dead Fred...Now!”

Lizzie turned to him and got off the bed, he walked over to her quietly while she gazed at him and gave one small kiss, saying the magic words “Drop Dead Fred” as she held him in an embrace until he disappeared in a flash of green magic….


	4. Hello, Old friend?

For a long time, it felt like Lizzie was her own again, living a new life, she detected glimpses of Fred’s presence when hanging out with her childhood pal Mickey and his daughter Natalie, knowing that Fred was now Natalie’s “imaginary friend”.

Natalie then grew up, Mickey got older and found other interests and Lizzie moved away to a different state.

She got a job involved in sociology and media, taking up hobbies like drawing, writing and gardening, she had also realized another big aspect of her identity that she hadn’t realized before.

It was one of the nights when Lizzie would go out drinking and partying, while she was trying to find some cute girls to talk to, she could sense and detect in the neon purple coloured bar that was something ethereal going on,

She flickered her eyes as she could see the moon and stars shining from the windows, and she could see a familiar friend dancing near the staircase with a ghost guy,the familiar friend had on a yellow t-shirt with textured patterns, a dark green tartan top, trainers and jeans” as he paused from the passionate dance he was having with the green-haired ghost guy,he turned around, and he could see Lizzie...

Lizzie was in the outfit that he had picked out for her, Lizzie smiled at him, Fred winked as he floated away from his partner, to have this small reunion,

He felt delighted to see Lizzie again, he didn’t expect to see her at a gay club but they knew that they had both realized their identities and moved on from their past,Lizzie was a living a happy adult life and Fred was a now-retired spirit, who had fallen in love with a bio-exorcist ghost,they could both tell their lives had changed a lot, in many positive ways,

After their conversation, Fred held Lizzie’s hand as she twirled around the dancefloor, she then did the same with him, they held each other close dancing for a while, until Fred went back to dancing with his ghost boyfriend and Lizzie had found a woman to talk to,they seemed to be getting along,soon Lizzie was then dancing and kissing with the woman.

In their hearts, Lizzie and Fred knew….they had found their happy ever after.

Fred: So it is like Cinderella just without the mice, princesses and glass slippers

Narrator: Fred it’s the end of the story 

Fred: Why on earth would she even wear glass slippers the feeling of glass on your feet must bloody hurt

Narrator: anyways so Lizzie and Fred lived happily ever after

Fred: You see? You don’t need a prince charming, you need confidence, motivation, growth and some good support from your fairy godmother! or fairygodjester in my case, hope all you snot faces enjoyed reading this brilliant fairytale!”


End file.
